Islamist Leader Writes To U.S. President
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Mogadishu, June 28, 2006 – The new leader of the Somali Islamist group which earlier this month took control of the capital Mogadishu says he has written letters to US President George W. Bush in which he urges America to work to change "the bad image" it has in the Muslim world and withdraw its troops from Iraq. "I have sent two letters written of my own hand to American president George W. Bush and one to the American congress asking them to change their policies towards the Arab-Islamic world," said Hassan Dahir Aweys who was named head of the Council of the Islamic Courts.
The Council of the Islamic Courts is a newly formed Parliament for the Sharia courts that defeated Mogadishu's secular warlords on June 5.
Previously, the public face of the Islamists had been Sharif Ahmed, a more moderate sheik who had spoken of his desire to work with the West.
Aweys, a former Somali Army colonel who has said he wants to introduce Sharia law in Somalia, announced he had written to Bush in an interview published in the London-based Arabic newspaper, al-Sharq al-Awsat.
"In my letters I asked the Americans to commit themselves to changing the bad image they have given their country... to withdraw from Iraq and to stop attacking moderate Islamic groups using the excuse that they are fighting terrorism," Aweys was quoted as saying.
Aweys is a former vice chairman of Al Itihad, an Islamic group that Washington labeled a terrorist group in the weeks after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. Subsequently he was personally cited for links to terrorism and banned from visiting the United States. No evidence to back up the claim was given at the time.
In the interview with al-Sharq al-Awsat, the Islamist leader said he did not rule out negotiations with the United States, but said he had no intention to drop his goal of establishing an Islamic state in Somalia.
Source: Ham/Aki
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